ABSTRACT

Industrial radiography is typically applied for the volumetric inspection of industrial products and installations (Halmshaw 1995; Bossi et al. 2002; Czichos 2013). W.C. Roentgen himself did the first radiographs of this kind in 1896, by imaging soldered tin plates and his hunting rifle (Glasser 1939) (see also Section II, Chapter 17 of this book for an historical introduction to Roentgen’s discovery; the original plate made by Röntgen of his shotgun is reproduced as Figure XXVI in the historical gallery, in the middle of this book). The basic setup consists of a radiation source in front of the object to inspect an area detector behind the object to capture the penetrated shadow image of the object under investigation. The classical detector is an X-ray film. New electronic area detectors are gradually substituting film. The radiation source can be an X-ray tube, a gamma source, a linear accelerator, or a particle accelerator, generating, for example, neutron, proton, or other charged particle radiation. Objects of all possible materials and thicknesses can be inspected, provided the right radiation source and energy is selected. There exist practical limitations to the upper material thickness, for example, 0.5 m penetration length in steel or 2 m in concrete (at an X-ray radiation energy of 12 MeV).